In locations where computers, laptops, the Internet, handhelds, and related devices have penetrated into the consumer market, ICT has become a transparent part of life making it difficult to perceive its strong sociocultural influences. From inside one of those cultures, we hardly recognize the extent to which ICT changes how businesses buy and sell, performers Read More
Month: August 2019
#edtech for #edleaders: Open to Secure
Technology systems are very valuable. Even a modest system can represent an investment of tens of thousands of dollars for network devices (routers, switches, access points, servers, and similar devices that users never see). The cost of software to keep the devices functioning is frequently thousands of dollars per year as well. Including personnel and Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Cloud Computing
“Cloud computing” is the vernacular term for computing services that are provided via a World Wide Web interface. As mobile devices have become more popular, cloud computing has become popular as well. Despite the impressive computing capacity that is available in mobile devices, they have less capacity than a laptop or desktop computer with a Read More
ePortfolios: Collect to Cull
The central feature of every portfolio are the artifacts which are those examples and fragments of work that illustrate the learners’ skills, knowledge, and habits. It is important to note that with some exceptions, artifacts are fragments of work. Rather than including the entire paper, one will include only the abstract or the conclusion, or Read More
Non-Neutrality of Technology
Vannever Bush was a scholar involved with the invention and development of electronic digital computers. In his 1945 article “As We May Think,” he predicted that computers would allow information workers to navigate and contribute to nearly infinite information pathways. He predicted workers would use a device called a memex to navigate and create paths Read More
Diversity of Solutions to Wicked Problems
When Rittel and Webber (1973) first defined wicked problems, they concluded that leaders cannot reasonably identify a single solution to a given social problem. They observed “that diverse values are held by different groups of individuals—[so] what satisfies one may be abhorrent to another, [and] what comprise problem-solution for one is problem-generation for another,” and Read More
The Nature of Data
Different problems require different data, which require different methods. All education researchers must understand the nature of the problems they study and the nature of the methods available so that the correct data can be ethically gathered and reliable conclusions can be drawn. Quantitative methods are used to gather numeric data, which are analyzed using Read More
Ideas About Education that Deserve Our Attention #2
Mark Deuze (2006), a scholar from Indiana University, Bloomington, identified participation, remediation, and bricolage as skills needed for the 21st century media landscape. Social networking sites and media sharing sites are examples of technologies that encourage this participation. The Internet provides access to vast information from sources of dubious reliability; this necessitates individuals take a Read More
Ideas About Education that Deserve Our Attention #1
This is the first is a series of posts I intend to share in which I describe some ideas, concepts, and research about teaching and learning in digital landscapes that educators have not given sufficient attention, in my opinion. In many cases, these are ideas that held educators’ attention for a short time, but they Read More
On Electronic Portfolios
Over the decades I have been working with digital technologies, teachers, and learners; electronic portfolios have been a recurring topic. The story usually plays out like this: I arrive in a school (maybe k-12, maybe college) and there are groups (often departments in colleges) in which there is interest in adopting electronic portfolios. I hear, Read More